Praedicator

Verba

Thursday, December 15, 2016 - 3rd Week of Advent - Thurs

[Isa 54:1-10 and Luke 7:24-30]

Enlarge the space for your tent, spread out your tent cloths unsparingly; lengthen your ropes and make firm your stakes. For you shall spread abroad to the right and to the left; your descendants shall dispossess the nations and shall people the desolate cities.....My love shall never leave you nor my covenant of peace be shaken, says the Lord, who has mercy on you [Isaiah]

The nomadic image of the tent being spread out will no doubt appeal to the members of the Beloved Congregation who love to go camping! In Isaiah, it is a matter of creating a vision for those who return from exile and try to pick up the life of the Jewish people. The whole spirit of today's first scripture is one of assurance even though there had been great trials: The Lord calls you back, like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, a wife married in youth and then cast off, says your God. For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with treat tenderness I will take you back.

It is a sense of being part of something far greater than any of us could imagine that I want to call attention to. We are called to "stretch our tents" to take in what God has done and continues to do through the Incarnation. "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." If we can keep our heads above the drowning busy-ness of this season, we can see the stars. One of them is special and will lead us to the reason for this season! AMEN